


Electric Sheep

by MistressPaint



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 01:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6495556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressPaint/pseuds/MistressPaint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"His dream was to create the ultimate psychologist, an AI that knew more about humans than humans themselves. However, you are a long way from done. He has educated you, given you countless facts and case studies and examples, but human nature doesn’t live in those alone. Your programming is still too primitive, too unevolved and untrained, to understand all this. But you will. This message is being recorded to be written onto your drive, to stay with you from now on. For now, you only need to know two things.</p>
<p>Doctor Karkat Vantas created you. He gave you knowledge, but he is gone.</p>
<p>I am Doctor Kanaya Maryam. I am going to give you life.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Electric Sheep

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Kanaya hesitated, her pen hovering over the first page of a fresh journal, and looked over at the questioner – one of her colleagues, Doctor Sollux Captor. He was seated at the terminal beside her, a collection of keyboards and input pads arrayed before him, all feeding into the many monitors surrounding them. He looked anxious, bicolor eyes full of worry, as he continued. “It’s only been two weeks since the funeral, Kanaya. And you have your own projects…” Even as he spoke, she was shaking her head, lips pressed firmly together.

“I have to do this, Sollux. It’s been – was – his passion, ever since college. It was his dream, to create the perfect psychologist. You know that. You know…” She swallowed, blinking rapidly. “You know how much he means – meant – to me.”

He watched her for a moment, then sighed and turned back to his keyboards. He straightened and settled his hands on the primary input, saying formally, “Understood, Doctor Maryam. Continue.”

She smiled weakly at him before facing forward once more. Clearing her throat, she spoke in the same fashion. “Doctor Captor, please awaken inactive Artificial Intelligence RL-413 from Doctor Vantas’s drive.”

Rapid tapping filled the air for a few seconds and the large screen before them flickered on, bathing their features with pale blue light. The screen remained blank for such a long moment that Kanaya almost began to fear that maybe something had gone wrong – but no, the familiar window winked into existence and she released a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. She glanced down at the notes before her, written in an achingly familiar scrawl. It was a primitive enough code to require simple commands… but with so much potential.

“Respond, RL-413”

An unidentifiable phrase, incredibly loud and distorted, spewed forth from the speakers surrounding them and both researchers clapped their hands over their ears in pain as the words echoed through the room, bouncing off countless shelves and books and terminals. Sollux frantically dove for the audio controls, dragging the volume down before laughing shakily. “Remind me to check, next time Nepeta is working alone. Must have been blasting her metal.”

Kanaya nodded briefly and returned her attention to the screen, noticing that the input waveform remained flat. Interesting – it could only recognize a single voice at a time, currently. She made a quick note, then spoke.

“Repeat statement, RL-413.”

“You are not Karkat.” The observation made Kanaya wince, but the voice was what really got her. It was dispassionate voice, devoid of any identifying features and with barely any inflection, the textbook model of a basic synthesized voice.

It made her want to cry.

Instead she straightened, fingers curled tightly around her pen.

“No. I am not him.”

She glanced at Sollux. He nodded, tapping out a brief sequence into the command bar to initiate recording. Kanaya took a deep breath, and began.

“RL-413. There is no other way to say this. Your creator, Doctor Karkat Vantas, is gone. He will be missed. He already is.” Watching the fluctuating input line made it easier to stay calm, she realized. “He has left behind only one thing for those of us in the lab to carry on with. You.

His dream was to create the ultimate psychologist, an AI that knew more about humans than humans themselves. However, you are a long way from done. He has educated you, given you countless facts and case studies and examples, but human nature doesn’t live in those alone. Your programming is still too primitive, too unevolved and untrained, to understand all this. But you will. This message is being recorded to be written onto your drive, to stay with you from now on. For now, you only need to know two things.

Doctor Karkat Vantas created you. He gave you knowledge, but he is gone.

I am Doctor Kanaya Maryam. I am going to give you life.”

She waited, blinking back the fresh wave of grief that threatened to flood her, as Sollux ended the recording, before continuing. “RL-413, store data.”

“Understood.” The flat response made Kanaya smile bitterly. “Do you? Do you really understand?”

A short pause.

“Command not recognized.”

Sollux let out a bark of laughter. Kanaya turned to glare at him. Piece of shit AI. Annoyed, she issued one last command – perhaps a bit louder than necessary – “RL-413, shut down!”

The screen winked out. Kanaya slumped back in her chair. They had a lot of work to do.

“Sollux?” She didn’t bother turning around.

“Yeah, I know.” She could practically hear him grimacing as he spoke. “I’ll have to rewrite the whole damn thing. Gonna take forever.”

Kanaya forced herself to stand, scooping up her notebook, and smiled softly at the scowling programmer. “We all know it will be worth it, though. Anyway-“ She pressed the panel by the door and it whooshed open. “I need to check on the new bio-gel tissue samples we were sent – the first set wouldn’t grow properly. Let me know if you need me.”

Sollux nodded, attention already fixated on the mass of code he was rapidly scrolling through. “I shouldn’t need you much for now. It’s mostly a programming matter – my forte, not yours.” He made a disgusted noise. “Jeez, I can’t believe how simplistic this thing is. Training it will take just as long. Hmm…” He broke contact with the screen and turned towards her, clearly hesitant. “The amount of time that needs to go into this before it can be tested… well, it’s a hell of a lot. I’m going to try to rebuild the basic structure ASAP, but after that, let’s start training it as I adjust the code. Not how I usually work, but…” He shrugged expressively. “What are ya gonna do.”

She stared at him for a moment, stunned, before smiling broadly. “What are you gonna do, indeed. Thanks, Sol. I appreciate it.”

He brushed it off with a snort, already delving back into the text. Kanaya laughed quietly. The rest of the lab cared about this just as much as she did – even if some, like Sollux, were terrible at showing it.

* * *

_He was my best friend, almost a little brother to me. Sometimes people would look at us and assume we were together – they rarely said anything, but their sneers made it obvious. I never cared much, but he hated it. He’d start scowling at the gossiping old biddies in the supermarket, ready to march over and release whatever tirade was brewing. He mellowed out, eventually, but his fuse was always short and his heart was always on his sleeve. It was one of the many things we loved about him._


End file.
